VEX Drive Trains 2007

[rswsmay]

Our team has not yet fully decided on a design yet. We are considering various design concepts and are working toward prototyping each one before selecting a final design. We have decided on a multi-speed drive train which we have already built and tested. We are also prototyping an ackerman steering system which we hope will improve drivetrain performance during turning manuvers. We completed some preliminary calculations, worked out the geometry and built 2 prototypes this past weekend. In conjunction with this, we plan to develop a software program to drive the wheels on both sides of the robot (actually all 4 wheels independantly) at the necessary speed to minimize skidding/dragging.

We are also toying with developing a 4 wheel steering system, but have not worked on any of the mechanics for that yet.